Loaches Online Forum

do all my tanks function better the less water changes I perform??? I travel a lot and have long periods away from home. When I come home all parameters are fine, and no fish have died. I have to add that my tanks are major over-filtered, but still....???? Even Nitrates are really low, the less water changes I perform. Weird.....

Totally a guess but do you change too much water when you do a water change/ That can hurt your good bacteria.
Why i hope someone else will inform if i am correct.

What are the specs of your tank? Size? Temp? PH? Plants? Substrate? Fish? Have you evert tested the water before you put it in? It could be that your putting in water that is already high in Phosphates and what not...

are you like me, and feed your fish too much.
Then, when you got out of town and that does not happen, the nitrates drop...
just a thought

I have noticed this also. I have a 75 gallon and 46 gallon tank that I used to clean weekly. I bought a test kit and then realized that I could probably go for a month if I wanted to. I usually go for 2 or 3 weeks between cleanings. I think that size has a lot to do with it. I have a variety of smaller tanks that absolutely can't go that long between cleanings. I have a twenty gallon that can barely make it a week before it is nasty, and it only has two medium size fish in it. All the tanks have way more filtration than required though.

You guys should put potted aquatic plants on your tanks, this will keep the nitrates down! They are natures filters! And then your tanks could go for 3 or 4 months between cleanings like mine do!

Thanks for all the answers I`ve been away on tour again so I haven`t been able to respond. Of all the suggestions, I can rule out a couple. One of the very few advantages of living in Norway is that our tap water is probably the cleanest in the world. So there are no issues with water changes and "contamination". For instance, de-chlorinaters are generally regarded as a waste of money over here The water is soft and quite basic. I don`t overfeed. Quite on the contrary. Even when I`m at home, over longer periods, I feed very little. I currently have 4 Loach tanks up and running. Species are: Skunks, Clowns, Yo-Yo, Histrionica, Kubotai, Kuhlii, and other dithers, like Tetras, Guppy, various Ancistrus, SAE, Scalare, Betta, L239, Cory...(not all in the same tank, of course ) Apart from size. all tanks are pretty much the same when it comes to water-parameters: PH approx. 7 - 7,5. No ,or very few, plants, sand substrate, GH around 2-3 dh.

I`m not advocating rare water changes or anything. I was just curious as to why my beeing away so much seemed to be no problem for my tanks. In regard of water changes and water parameters. I imagine my over-filtration is the main reason. But that doesn`t account for the low nitrates, though?

If the tank gets some light, then Algae growth is probably the reason. When you do large water changes you disturb the balance of algae, bacteria, and other microbes in the water. That's just one reason why its recommended that fish keepers do frequent small water changes instead of doing large water changes. 24/7 Drip water changes are best for sustaining that very delicate food web in the aquarium. A large water change can be very disastrous to a food web. Most fish keepers got in there head that bacteria and algae are bad, but these things are actually the building blocks for all of life if they are kept in a harmonial balance.

Interesting That would mean that Algae growth is a good thing?? (I lOVE algae, so that would be good news for me). I never do large water changes, so I`m on to a "good" thing here??:D

Yes, some algae growth is beneficial, but too much can be harmful also. If there is a good balance of algae growth and tank inhabitants that eat algae, such as pleco's then the algae growth might not even be noticeable.